With these changes, the Indian Aluminium board will boast of six expatriates besides financial institutions' nominees. Addressing a news conference here today, B W Sturgell of president of Asia-pacific of Alcan and an Alcan nominee on Indal board said: "The board has accepted the resignation ofMitra and Datta with great regret." Mitra will continue as the vice chairman and whole-time director to assist the transition to the new leadership untill the year-end. However, Datta is stepping down as a director of the company.

The new chairman and CEO Bark-Jones was Director finance Alcan Europe before taking over the new responsibility. According to Alcan, with these appointments, Indal ``would be further enriched with a proactive flow of international experience, skills and global vision to enhance shareholder value.''

Alcan had recently increased its stake in Indal aluminium from 34 per cent to 54.62 per cent following a hostile takeover bid by Mumbai-based Sterlite Industries. There were reports that Alcan was not happy with the way the then management had handled the entire takeover drama. Today's changes were in response to that criticism. Alcan, however, denied this. "We are extremely happy with the performance of the management and today's changes have nothing to do with it," itsaid.

Bark-Jones said he would not be representing Alcan but look after the interests of all Indal shareholders in India. ``We at Indal will work in close cooperation with Alcan to grasp the opportunities as they come and address both domestic and global market needs," he said.

Meanwhile, the company announced a 71 per cent increase in its net profit for the first half of fiscal 1998-99. The increase in net profit at Rs 38.5 crore is mainly attributable to cost control and achieving higher volumes is some products and an enriched product mix. The turnover was up at Rs 570 crore as compared to Rs 544 crore of previous fiscal.